November 30, 2004

Searching for the perfect Linux laptop

Quite a few of my friends and colleagues are running Linux on their laptops, but it seems that each of them reports that something doesn't work quite right - WiFi, or sleep mode, or power management. (And the Web seems to be filled with horror stories, hacks, and half-baked solutions.) I'm curious if this is a universal truth, or whether someone has managed to achieve The Perfect Linux Laptop configuration. I'm thinking of things like:

  • sleep to RAM works
  • everything works correctly after waking from sleep (even if you've unplugged a USB or FireWire device while sleeping)
  • WiFi automatically connects to known and public networks, and reconnects after sleep
  • power settings (screen brightness, CPU speed) automatically adjust when you unplug from the mains
  • able to play, read and write CDs and DVDs
  • automatically switch to mirrored or multiple screens if an external monitor or projector is plugged in
  • etc.
I can't believe it's really that hard - is it? (And does the Tecra M2 on CAMS fit the bill?)

Posted by geoff2 at November 30, 2004 05:29 PM
Comments

Yellow Dog Linux on an iBook? (cough, cough)

Posted by: alecm at December 2, 2004 07:35 PM

Hmmmm....

Posted by: Geoff Arnold at December 3, 2004 12:44 AM

You gotta wait at least 24 months. Laptop is so proprietary (read: they don't STRICTLY confirm to standard) so of course Linux is playing catch up all the time.
We will stop playing catch up when HW vendors (IBM, HP, Dell) start offering Linux out of the box. So far, all these Linux so-called champion don't do this. HP only does it for symbolic (very limited model).

Posted by: me at January 10, 2005 09:28 AM

Yes, but 24 months from now there'll be a new laptop feature, and you'll tell me I've got to wait another 24 months before THAT gets supported. Repeat ad inf.

And what's stopping the major vendors from shipping Linux? Why should I believe that they'll change their positions? The co-dependency with M$ is so great....

The bottom line is that if you want a really user-friendly non-Windows laptop today, there's only one vendor in town: Apple. And that's OK.

Posted by: Geoff Arnold at January 10, 2005 09:35 AM
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